The Penn State scandal: Do the NCAA's sanctions go far enough?

The penalties imposed by the NCAA on Penn State University in the horrific child sex-abuse scandal are severe. But did the governing body of college sports go far enough to prevent corruption at other big-money schools?

Perhaps not. Despite years of cover-up by top PSU officials, led by head coach Joe Paterno, the football team got away without facing the so-called “death penalty.” It won’t be sidelined. Not even for one year.

Penn State’s new season will begin on Sept. 1 at home in State College, Pa., against Ohio University.

The school has found that Mr. Paterno was among those who kept silent while ex-coach Jerry Sandusky was abusing young boys, sometimes on campus.

Their silence allowed the abuses by the former defensive coordinator to go on for years. He was found guilty in June.

Despite the cover-up by Mr. Paterno, who died in January after being fired, and former PSU President Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley, each of whom was ousted, the NCAA declined to shut down the football program.

It decided not to make an exception to its rules, which reserve the “death penalty” for teams that commit a major violation while already being sanctioned.

The NCAA did issue big sanctions.

It wiped from the record books the last 14 seasons of victories by the football team under Mr. Paterno.

Plus, Penn State was hit with $60 million in fines and banned from postseason football for four years. It has had its scholarships capped for four years at 10 below the usual limit. The school was put on probation for five years.

Beyond this, the NCAA ruled that any current or incoming football players at Penn State are free to transfer and immediately compete at another college.

NCAA President Mark Emmert declared, “Football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people.”

The $60 million in fines - equivalent to the annual gross revenue of the PSU football program - must be paid into an endowment for programs to prevent child sexual abuse or to assist victims. However, the money may not be used to fund such programs at Penn State.

For its part, the Big Ten Conference imposed more penalties on Penn State, increasing the fines by $13 million and formally censuring the school.

Where does all this leave the football team?

With its scholarship quota capped at 65, it will face major problems in trying to compete at the highest level in the sport, something the Nittany Lions had done for decades.

The sanction that vacated 112 Penn State victories from 1998 to 2011 cut Mr. Paterno’s career wins to 298. Which means that former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden will now hold the top spot in the NCAA record book with 377 major-college wins.

But the reputation of Mr. Paterno - who long had been hailed for running one of the cleanest and best programs in the nation - was already in shambles.

His legacy will forever be marked by shame.

The real need at this point is to deter other college sports teams from doing anything like what Penn State did at all costs to protect a big-money sports program.

This more likely would have been accomplished had the NCAA gone even further and suspended play at Penn State at least for a year or so.